The American Menu

Boston 1909-1927 The “deafening drone of vuvuzelas” won’t be heard at the 127th football game between Harvard and Yale this weekend. Ac...

Cunard Line, 1856 English railroad magnate Henry Pease, growing weary at the end of an eleven-day voyage across the Atlantic in 1856...

Hot Springs, Arkansas Christmas, 1875 T his essay was published in The Book Club of California Quarterly, Winter 2019.  While touring...

New York City,  2010 In August 2009, critic Frank Bruni awarded Eleven Madison Park a perfect four stars in the New York Times . The ...

New York City 1884 Two national political conventions were held in Chicago during the summer of 1884. In June, the Republicans nominat...

Wellesley,  1879 The cover of this 1879 menu from the Wellesley Hotel looks straightforward, except that the small town located a few...

Occupied Japan,  1949-1955     This cover illustration, showing Santa Claus flying through a Japanese gate toward Mount Fuji, represe...

Hanford, Washington 1944 Hanford Engineer Works (1944) Soon after a woman sold me an old Christmas menu online, she wrote to let me k...

Camp David, Maryland 2007 President George W. Bush was anxious to form a good relationship with the newly-chosen British Prime Ministe...

New York City,  1935 In her memoir This Time Together , comedienne Carol Burnett reminisces about the summer of 1959, when the musical...